Michigan’s ‘Onion House’, a 1977 compound of seven concrete domes spotlighted on HGTV’s Zillow Gone Wild, sells for $950,000 – after first asking nearly $2 million
A house in Kalamazoo made of seven concrete domes, built in 1977, on 5 acres. It went up at $1.9 million, got its moment on HGTV's Zillow Gone Wild, and sold for $950,000. After going through the photos I'm a little annoyed it wasn't me.
The Onion House
You enter through a cave
You come in at the bottom. Stone walls, stone floor. Bond villain's weekend place.
Skylights at the peak of the domes push daylight all the way down the middle.
Same staircase, looking down. I'd drop my phone down there within a week.
Plum walls up top. Not what I'd pick, but I kind of like it.
Kitchen, piano, very blue bar
Grand piano under a half-moon window. Of course.
Every counter and cabinet in here had to be built on a curve to sit flush against the dome. Nothing off the shelf fits a round room.
Then the wet bar, painted a blue you could spot from a plane. Wine fridge underneath.
Live-edge wood vanity in the powder room. Somebody really loved wood.
The triangle window
Best room in the house and it's not close. A huge triangle of glass cut straight through a concrete bubble, and nothing but trees on the other side.
Breakfast table right up against it. I'd never leave this chair.
Where you sleep
Three bedrooms, four bathrooms. The primary's headboard is basically a wall of storage.
The main bathroom is bigger than apartments I've paid rent on. It has a carpeted lounge. In a bathroom. I have questions.
The loft bedroom wraps around the stair core, so you're sleeping next to a hole in the floor. There's a railing, to be fair.
Five acres of it
Pond, stacked stone waterfall, little footbridge. Someone put real hours into this.
Taxes for 2024 were $4,660. For five acres and seven domes, that's the number that made me read it twice.
At the $1.9 million asking price, Zillow had the payment at $12,588 a month. Whoever paid $950,000 got the same domes, the pond and the drop-your-phone staircase for half, and I just hope they keep the blue bar.
